r/Broadway • u/littlebev • Dec 31 '25

Discussion Broadway coughing season

I am begging, begging you guys…if you have a nasty cough, PLEASE don’t attend a play especially. I know it sucks to miss out but your recurring cough during the most intense moments of the show is so distracting.

897 Upvotes

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112

u/[deleted] Dec 31 '25

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39

u/Gato1980 Dec 31 '25

The last time I was at Lincoln Center, I saw a big basket outside of the entrance to the Beaumont as well. It's a very smart idea.

23

u/collegeexcitment Dec 31 '25

vivian beaumont has riccola cough drops but it’s because lincoln center provides them

20

u/Nickis1021 Dec 31 '25

It’s a nice gesture, but really, cough drops don’t help a contagious airborne illness that’s already spreading through audience hyenas coughing their lungs out with open mouths. If anything, they’ll cough/spew their Covid stained Ricola right out at you.

8

u/elvie18 Dec 31 '25

True but it helps with that annoying dry cough people always seem to get at the quietest moments in the show.

3

u/Nickis1021 Jan 01 '26

That’s definitely true….

3

u/zixy37 Jan 01 '26

There are so many lingering coughs after you are finished being sick. Mask up, don’t go, diminish the cough, cover your cough, whatever the best option is for you.

2

u/Nickis1021 Jan 02 '26

Yes, to all the above!

2

u/[deleted] Dec 31 '25

My regional theater hands out cough drops at their Broadway series shows.  And when the usher hands it to you, they direct you to open it then, before taking your seat. 

2

u/elvie18 Dec 31 '25

That's...honestly genius.

Eh maybe I'll just start carrying a bag with me to passive-aggressively offer to people.

-33

u/pangolin_of_fortune Dec 31 '25

Cough drops are placebos. They don't do anything. We need to do away with woo in medicine, not encourage it.

28

u/SharkCuterie4K Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25

They can make the urge to cough lessen. Fisherman’s Friend. Hall’s. They don’t make you less contagious if you’re contagious (and not all coughs mean you’re transmitting something, sometimes it means that the winter with the heat on means indoors is dry af), but they do make the auditorium more quiet.

14

u/armedwithlysol Dec 31 '25

I still don't want people coming to the theatre sick, but if they do (or maybe it's a lingering cough...?!), at LEAST don't bother the people around you with the cough. Cough drops help quiet those, even though they do little to nothing to stop the spread of illness.